Jaffa Cakes

I love baking, but mostly I stick to tried and tested recipes that I know will work.

However, last week, for no reason whatsoever, I decided I wanted to make Jaffa Cakes.

It took me a few days (due to laziness more than anything) to get all the ingredients and I started making them the other night. I used Good Food's recipe and it was pretty easy (to start with - read on...). They took a while to make, but not because they were difficult, simply because everything needs time to cool down (cakes) and set (jelly).

The batter is a little unfamiliar to me and probably needs a bit of work after my first attempt, but it was perfectly edible. For 12 cakes, you should place a bowl over a pan of simmering water and mix in 2 eggs, 2oz plain flour and 2oz caster sugar until you have a thick but light batter. This took around 5 minutes for me, but I need to do some research into this as maybe I should have stooped sooner or carried on for longer. As I said, the cakes weren't quite right.

Then, you simply grease a muffin tray and scoop the batter into the holes, leaving them in the oven for 8-10 minutes, before letting them cool.

While they're in the oven, you can make the yummy orange jelly using a normal sized pack of jelly as well as a tablespoon of orange marmalade and boiling water. According to Good Food's recipe, you need 125ml of water, however, I found that this wasn't enough to melt the jelly so added a bit more, as well as a bit more marmalade - it tasted good to me, but the consistency was a little wobblier than your usual Jaffa Cakes.

Then comes the waiting. The cakes need to cool and the jelly needs to set. Next time, I'd probably make the jelly the night before - save waiting around.

After everything is cool and set, you need to cut the jelly into 12 small circles, slightly smaller than the cakes themselves.


Then, came the mess. Oh the chocolatey messy mess.

In hindsight, simply placing a sheet of baking paper on the worktop before pouring the chocolate over the cakes, would have made life a lot easier. Ah well, I learnt my lesson.

They weren't pretty but boy they were good!

After chatting with colleagues about this mess, one of them came up with an amazing solution, something that should get these to look better. Next time I plan to set the jelly in a muffin tray, so that the jelly is already in 12 perfect circles. I also, plan to leave the cakes in the tin to cool, so that when I pour over the chocolate, I should hopefully get a better finish as the chocolate won't dribble down everywhere. Clever ay?


I haven't tried this yet though, so if you have any tips - let me know. I can't wait to have a go at them again.

Christmas is on its way

Yay - Christmas is only a few weeks away. And this year, the Other Half and I have a cosy little home to celebrate in, instead of a cold and damp rental - woo!

Last week, Cardiff switched on its Christmas lights - one of my favourite times of year. I finished work, walked into town (it was a perfect cold and dry day), marvelled at the beautiful lights, browsed the array of cute stalls and had some roasted nuts while watching the various street performances.

I've also just started wrapping my gifts as I need to head home to north Wales on the first weekend in December and I'm getting mega excited. The Other Half doesn't quite seem to share my level of enthusiasm, yet.


Only a month to go...

Guess what I found...

...a yellow cushion!

My beautiful yellow cushion. The one that has been missing for 3 months and which I have finally found.

Alright, I was simply looking for a plain mustard yellow cushion to go with my yellow, grey and white bedroom. And I finally found one, at BHS, just down the road.

It may be a tad boring, and very plain indeed, but it's exactly what I'd been looking for. So, I hope you like it! :)

Hudl2

So, I've been looking to buy a tablet or a small laptop for a while. The Other Half spends most of his evenings on our only laptop, so I never really get a chance to browse for much longer than 10 mimutes at a time.

And so, today I bought Tesco's Hudl2 and I couldn't be happier.

I'm far from being tech-savvy. I have a ridiculously old mobile phone, I have no idea how to use Snapchat and I've only just discovered Instagram. See, definitely not tech-savvy. And to top it all off? My mum recommended the Hudl2. God I feel old.

Aaanyway, I love my little pink Hudl. It looks good, it's light and does everything I need it to do. I read several reviews which said it's a great little tablet and that you can't get much better for the price - I was sold...especially as I am a bit of a coupon expert.

The Hudl2 retails for £129. I paid £20. I was so damn impressed with myself.

Ok, I did have a £50 gift voucher from my dad, but I still managed to get an impressive £59 pound off-get in! 

I normally spend my Clubcard vouchers as soon as I get them, but this year, after moving house twice (ugh!) I forgot to change my Clubcard address. And so, my landlord stole my vouchers! I know, how ridiculous is that? But, after a very nice phonecall with Tesco customer services, I was told I'd receive all my vouchers, even the stolen ones, in November, a whopping £25 in total. Woo!

I then went on to 'boost' these vouchers - between now and December 14, Tesco will double the value of all your vouchers, so I actually had £50 to spend. And then I basically threw all my other vouchers (£2 off when you spend £20 etc.) at the poor cashier. Boom - Hudl2 for £20.

Eat your heart out Martin Lewis.

Now I'm off to play with a virtual dog, after checking on my virtual city. Money well spent.


Photo from SavvyAnnie

My craft room

I'm just so happy.

No, I didn't win the lottery. And no, the Other Half didn't propose...

Last week, I finally got round to creating my craft room. Well, my craft corner at least.

For years and years I've cluttered up our home with beautiful scraps of paper, pens an pencils, jars of jewels and buttons and finished (and half finished!) pieces of (what I call) art. And for years I've also seen a million different craft rooms on the web, full of gorgeous old furniture and clever kit to store materials.

Well, I was never really going to get that, but I was determined to have my own little craft sanctuary.

Last week, I trawled the shops to find a table or desk - it was way harder than I thought. Everything was either too small or too expensive. Until I went back to the good old favourite - Argos. Where I found this simple but perfectly sized table - for a bargain at £24.99

Nothing special, but now I have somewhere to sit comfortably (my decoupaged stool has made an appearance) instead of sprawled on the floor making a mess, or hogging the dining table.

                                        

I found an old notice board where I've pinned a few of my favourite clippings, I've filled a small white desk cupboard I received as a gift full of buttons and nic nacs, I dug out a candle and some ornaments from unpacked boxes and all my string art projects have been pulled out of storage and displayed in the corner.

I absolutely love my little craft corner. It cost me £24.99 (as I already had everything else) but now I have somewhere comfortable to make a mess - without necessarily having to clear up before having dinner.

Cake pops

Oh I do love a good cake pop. They're oh so fattening, take ages (for me anyway!) to make but I still love them.

I've only ever made them once before, after travelling for 9 months, and when I was supposed to be looking for a job...

I loved how they tasted - so indulgent and moreish, but they were a bit of a faff.

Since then, I've been baking a lot more and so thought I'd give them another go. This time, I thoroughly enjoyed the few hours I spent in the kitchen - and the results were pretty good as well.



I used a variety of different recipes from the web, but just went for it on my own really - they turned out alright!

To start off, make a basic sponge cake - this can be one big cake or a few smaller ones - whatever you feel like - you'll be crumbling all this up in a bit anyway. And let it (or them) cool.

Make some butter icing. A lot of the recipes, mainly the ones from America, used "cream cheese frosting" but I looove butter icing so used this instead.

When your cake has cooled, crumble it all into a big bowl - you should have very soft crumbs. I cut off the edges of my cake as they were a bit tougher - but don't throw them out - they're still cake!

Mix in a bit of the icing - better to use too little at this point. Then comes the messy bit, get your hands in there and squish it all together. Add a bit more icing as you go - you should end up with a big ball of cake and icing that's firm but not sticky. Throw it in the fridge to harden up - anything from half an hour to half a day is fine.

When you're ready, you can start to make the cake pops. Break off small pieces of the dough and roll them into balls - small balls. This is where my greed caused a few mistakes. A big ball will be too heavy for the lollipop sticks and they'll just slide slowly down the stick. You'll have a delicious cake ball, but not a cake pop. I aimed to make them a bit smaller than a ping pong ball.

Whack them in the fridge again and while they're in there, melt some chocolate. I opted for my favourite - white chocolate. And to make it easier to work with, I added a few drops of vegetable oil into the mix - to add shine and so that the chocolate is a little looser when you're dipping the cakes. Don't worry - you won't taste it!

One more thing before the dipping begins - pop the lollipop sticks into the chocolate and push the chocolate covered end into the balls - not too deep but not too shallow. Too deep and the ball will slide down the stick after dipping. Too shallow, and you'll end up with cake pops stuck in your melted chocolate. There's no exact science I'm afraid, just a bit of common sense. Leave them for 5 minutes so that the chocolate has hardened - this will act as your glue.

Now comes the best or worst bit - you either end up with gorgeous cake pops or a big pile of cake and chocolate mess - I had a bit of both.

So, holding the sticks, dip the cake pops into the chocolate and carefully cover them all with chocolate. I used a spoon to drizzle as well, as I was terrified that too much weight would cause the ball to drop into the melted chocolate.

Carefully place your chocolate covered cake pop in a stand. Now, you can either buy one or make one. I'd just bought some furniture and so had some polystyrene in the house - perfect for sticking cake pops in. I've also seen people use egg boxes, so you could also give that a go.

Once you've dipped your cakes, sprinkle with any cake toppings you have. You could go all out at this point - some of the designs online are so impressive...

But after all my hard work of making sponge, making icing, making a dough, chilling and dipping - I threw some hundreds and thousands over them and ate them all. Yum!

                                            

They're super rich, but so good. I hope you enjoy!

Photos: Myself and TheVeryBestTop10

Learning to knit, sort of

I've always wanted to be able to knit. I love the thought of sitting in front of a fire (we don't have a fireplace) knitting my self a long scarf with beautiful soft wool.

 

Hmm, I'm not quite there yet.

 

But I've started knitting, which is a good start.

 

I started knitting a few months ago when the Other Half's mum showed me how. But, once she left and I was left to do it myself, I'd end up with big gaping holes and eventually (not too long into my knitting...) I'd end up with a terrible mess of knots, and give up.

 

However, this time has been better.

 

I'm not a very patient person, and knitting (for beginners anyway!) requires a lot of it.

 

I had a go, and I kept going and going - without any horrible knots - I was so damn proud of myself.

 

My piece of knitting is in a horrible yellow wool so I'll probably never wear it or use it for anything, I have one big hole in the middle of it, and I'm adding stitches as I go - I've googled that this is a common problem for beginners, but haven't quite figured out what I'm meant to be doing.

 



 

 

 

Ah well, I'm enjoying myself too much to wory about gaping holes and extra stitches.

 

At least I'm having a go, ay?

 

P.S. A glass of wine whilst you're knitting doesn't harm either...